Sunday, May 25, 2008

Unfulfilled childhood dreams

My sister has had an unfulfilled childhood dream – to light up a roman candle and see it go! You know, one of those fireworks that back in the 70’s and 80’s we used to hold onto with a small plastic handle and watch the fireworks zoom off!

As we drove through New Mexico (and Texas and other states for that matter), fireworks were prominently marketed by billboard. We happened to stop by a store, and what do you know? They sell fireworks! We looked for the roman candles, because, come on, this trip is about doing fun stuff, including fulfilling childhood dreams.

They sold them! But these were different from the roman candles of the past. These, instead of the user being able to hold on to the candle while it set off, are now designed so that you insert the candle into the dirt, so that the user is NOT handling the fireworks. We can only assume that too many people were injured in the course of using the roman candles back in the day. Or maybe it was just that the potential lawsuit was too high.

In any case, she decided against the roman candles, because it just wouldn’t be the same. And we had to wonder – we did so many things back when we were kids that are now considered to be dangerous – and we survived! So what’s changed?

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